~ snails in art

(99) RMA RP-P-1952-247

The engraving presented here, entitled “Lagena” is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The design was made by Hans Vredeman de Vries (1527–1607), and is part of a series of 12. This work is dated 1563 [1].

The design shows a jug, richly decorated with snails and crustaceans. In the centre a representation of a ‘Fluviatile God’ (stroomgod). At the base three duck-like feet are shown. It is therefore possible that the snails in this design were drawn after freshwater species, but anyhow they seem pretty imaginary and stylised to me.

From top to bottom:
1) a pair with few whorls, of which one sinistral, the other only partly visible but likely dextral;

2) a somewhat elongated dextral one;

3) a Helix-type, likely dextral;

4) a sinistral snail with hardly more than one whorl;

5) a similar one with a dextral shell;

6) an elongated snail with a sinistral shell;

7) another sinistral snail with a hardly coiled shell;

8) and finally, another elongated one with a dextral shell.

Some of these animals look hardly like a snail, but undoubtedly this has to be blamed to the technique used for this engraving, which may have been responsible for some of the rather coarse results.